Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Zelous Wheeler called up, Yangervis Solarte optioned to Triple-A

Yangervis Solarte, who was a bright spot for the Yankees through the first seven weeks of the season but has been mired in a terrible offensive funk since, didn’t make it to the charter flight yesterday.

With just three hits in his last 41 at-bats, Solarte has been replaced on the active roster by Zelous Wheeler, who was in camp this spring with the Yankees and has been with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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I would think the way Beltran has not been hitting or able to play the outfield and injuries off and on this season that he’s probably done for the year too. So we’ve got CC that was signed to a long term contract and big dollars and now Beltran signed to a 3 year multi million dollar contract out of action. Cashman has hopefully learned that you can’t pick up these players at the end of their career and over 35 and a history of injuries no matter how well they’ve played in the past. It’s taking up pay roll that could have been used for younger players with potential. It certainly has made this team much weaker on offense. Whether McArthy is the right guy to shore up the rotation will remain to be seen but he’s certainly not a Samardja or Hammel or David Price. Certainly a 3rd baseman who can catch and hit is a must before the deadline. We can’t keep trotting Johnson out there. He’s a dud at the plate. Dumping Soriano was a must. He just doesn’t have it any more. Whether he can help another team I doubt it. He should retire. he’s had a great career. We just got him too late.

hey seek, nice to see you back on this blog. Thought you might have given up and gone somewhere else. If we can get this troll off this blog with his ignorant and rude comments we can get back to discussing baseball and the Yankees and not a lot of stupid opinions that have nothing to do with baseball. We need to allow people to express their opinions about the Yankees and baseball but not all this other crap. Anyway, keep your comments coming. I appreciate them and always have.

Robert please ignore this guy and report him to Bob and Bryan. He has been harassing me for years. I stopped posting because I am tired of arguing with a non Yankees fan. I haven’t been banned but they need to ban him. He continues to scare away the legitimate posters here.

jerseyjoe: a lot of these more recent comments sound more like yankmeister1 to me. Has he taken your handle Joe and commenting under your user name? Have we got a split personality on this blog, or multiple personalities with the same name? whoever is blogging under jerseyjoe at this point SHUT UP yourself. If you’re an A’s fan why are you on this blog?

Ah jeeeez, I’m gone on a business trip all week and the same insanity on this blog keeps showing up. Looks like the same trouble making troll who has been plaguing me for years on this blog has found a way to post under my ID of yankmeister1 trying to make me look bad. Not surprised that yankeecanada fell for it as he usually does. Sorry yankeecanada, but you are his personal patsy, you are just way too easy for him to fool, granted this time he has somehow found a way to use my ID. I don’t launch unprovoked unsolicited attacks on people so stop falling for his trickery. Next time he does it you need to ignore it, he is just trying to get a response out of you for sick laughs.

Whoever it is I’ve already reported you, not that it will do any good.

Soriano another guy who’s got to go and go now. They can’t wait any longer for him to get his stroke back. He swings at anything and everything. Totally undisciplined. He can’t see pitches obviously. He’s had it. He helped last year coming over from the cubs all pumped up with coming back to the Yankees but it sure hasn’t carried over to this year. Yankees need to trade or sit Johnson and Soriano and either get another outfielder to spell Suzuki off and they’ve got to get another experienced 3rd baseman that can hit. These guys are never going to get better. So it’s an outfielder, a 3rd baseman and at least 1 good starter. Hopefully they won’t have to empty the cupboard(as little as there is in there) to get at least rent a players for this year.

1 hit in 4 innings. Making this rookie pitcher for the Twins look like a Cy Young candidate. Yankees never do well against pitchers they’ve never seen before. Need to get the offense going here soon. A sweep would be nice with the way the three top teams are bunched together. Baltimore plays the Sox twice today. And the Jays haven’t done well against the A’s so far.

As bad as Yankee Mgmt is you have to marvel at the ineptitude of the Cubs. They trade their two best starters (neither of which they were going to resign) to the A’s for one of the best youngsters in the minor leagues, a shortstop. Have to wonder if Theo looked at his everyday roster and saw that his BEST everyday player was Starlin Castro, a shortstop? Also have tho wonder if said Castro will be in pinstripes next season since the Yankees will be needing a shortstop next season?

no McCann today. Foot still? Where’s Gardner? He’s not in the lineup either? Getting a rest day? Don’t remember anyone saying he was injured. Doesn’t look like a very strong lineup again. But Girardi took my advice and put Roberts in the 2nd spot.

Roberts get a chance to bat second in the order and gets 4 extra base hits and then today Girardi puts Jeter back in second spot and moves Roberts down to 6. Roberts responded to the promotion up the order but will he continue to hit the same way in #6? probably not. Jeter is not really hitting, too many ground outs, too many DPs, too many strike outs. Why would Girardi move him back into the 2nd spot with the way he’s hitting? It would have been a good opportunity to reinsert him back to #6 and leave Roberts at #2 and see how that works. Jeter is just not who he used to be and he’s only going to the all star game based on his past performance and reputation. They’ve got to shake up this damn lineup. Girardi just can’t keep going status quo. Definition of insanity? Keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results.

GM M att SuSakki here with another news brief. Wheeler is not good, just like Solarte he is hitting out of his shoes and the dugout catch was no catch. Refsnyder continues to hit at Scranton despite toe problem. Sabathia is steady stealing money and it could affect an insurance claim if injury is exaggerated. Yankees need to bring back my Ian before the Pads trade him elsewhere. Love you Robaire the Frenchman.

Keep away from that Fools Gold Lee. I still love Headley despite the fact that he SUCKS. We need to get Pettitte back he could be this year’s Cy Young winner for the Yankees. Solarte is pathetic. I was absolutely wrong when I said he could win a batting title this year. Trade Sanchez for Granderson.

please Joe don’t play Johnson ever again. I’ve had it with this guy. he’s useless at the plate. Strike out after strike out. Ground out after ground out. He can’t even get a walk. The Ryan is also useless at the plate. If that’s the best we’ve got to back up our infield we are in serious trouble. Both of these guys contribute nothing to the offense. Keep them out of the lineup, PLEASE!

yankeecanada, there are a # of useless everyday players that Crashman has put together on this squad. It’s a bad everyday team. As for the pitching situation I doubt CC & Pineda will ever be useful in the rotation. Nova perhaps. And don’t look for much help from the minor league systems. In all this squad and its minor league counterparts are a train wreck. And squarely the one responsible for the train wreck is Crashman.

based on Roberts’ production today I’d leave him batting 2nd rather than Jeter. Move Jeter down in the order to 6th. Looks like Roberts might have found the right spot in the line up to get him going offensively

6-1 lead and Whitley gives up 3 runs. Man he had a few good games at the start and now showing his true form, at least as a starter. Should be in the pen but who else do we have? Time to yank him Joe and send in Warren. This is a game which we should have had in a bag but the lead is gradually dwindling away with Whitley pitching.

don’t like the look of the lineup Joe has put together today. Pretty weak from 6 down and even 1-5 hasn’t been consistently productive. 7 runs an abnormality this year. More like 2 or 3 usually. Puts a lot of pressure on the starting pitcher and 3 of them are fill ins but looks like they could be filling in for longer than expected.

Hey Yank, I’m not French Canadian. I live in Toronto and English speaking. You don’t have to be condescending with your comments. Wheeler did well last night. Hope he’s not a 1 day wonder. He did pretty well in spring training as I remember and has some pop obviously which we need. Refsnyder couldn’t come up because of an ingrown toe nail? You got to be kidding. Good to see Beltran knock one out of the park with 2 on. Tanaka got some run support for a change. He didn’t have his best stuff last night. Yankees need to keep on winning. Now the O’s are tied for first with the Jays. Hopefully Whitley will have better stuff than he had last game.

what the Yankees can’t hit Hughes? Everybody hit Hughes last year. Only 2 hits and in the 5th inning. Tanaka hasn’t been great obviously giving up 2 runs and 5 hits already but again the friggin offense. It stinks. Putting Wheeler in the lineup isn’t going to change much. A rookie who is not really ready for the bigs. And Ryan who might be alright defensively but no real upgrade at the plate and in fact I’d rather see Roberts in there. Yankees owned the Twins in the 90s even when the Twins were on top of the division. Obviously not any more. The Yankees don’t own anyone any more but they’re owned by everyone else. If the Red Sox and Rays weren’t so bad the Yankees would be buried in the basement with the record they have. Even Tanaka can’t pull this one out barring a miracle.

And now CC is going for MRI because of fluid. This is a Cluster F in the first degree and is on Crashman. Forget about CC, Nova or Pineda this year folks. And H and H since we can’t see you two getting fired how about firing the idiot responsible for this garbage, Crashman!!!!!!

Too bad about Solarte. He really came on in spring training with a lot of energy and a lot of success at the plate. he was hitting with real confidence. Something happened to put him into a hitting funk. Who knows? Pressure on the kid. Noone else has been hitting very well either. Guys like Soriano and Beltran should also go down but of course with their contracts and big salaries they can’t do it so we’re stuck with them and hope they can turn it around. Hopefully Solarte can get his stroke and confidence back and hope that Wheeler can contribute. Certainly a better option than Johnson at the plate because Johnson does nothing. Has Cashman waited too long for the team to start hitting and now below 500 and 4 1/2 games behind the Jays and also behind the O’s. Will this be the jolt that will wake them up? Time will tell. This next series with the Twins is critical. They need to sweep. They’re up against their ex pitcher Hughes who is certainly pitching better in the Twins’ park than in yankee stadium.

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